Wolverhampton children’s services ‘need improvement’ after concerns raised over caseloads and recruitment

Inspectors from Ofsted revealed they had found areas for improvement during a special visit to Wolverhampton Council’s children’s services.

It comes after the council’s services were deemed ‘Good’ by the watchdog last year.

The report stated that areas of the service had experienced ‘significant pressure’ in the face of high staff turnover and also difficulty in recruiting and retaining social workers and ‘competent’ team managers.

It read: “These have affected the quality of management oversight and direction in several locality teams.

"Combined with unacceptably high caseloads for social workers in some locality teams, the effectiveness of social work practice has been compromised in some cases.”

The Children’s Services remain with a Good rating, but Ofsted listed areas that did require improvement.

Emma Bennett, director of Children’s Services at the council, said in response: “The letter is a balanced and objective assessment of where services for children in need and those on child protection plans are, with inspectors agreeing with us as to our strengths and weaknesses.

“This inspection rightly focused on the one area of children’s services which was found to require improvement, and the inspectors’ findings have helped us determine how far along we are on our improvement journey.

“The inspectors recognised that our assessment work is generally a strength, that timely decisions are made and thresholds are appropriate and well applied. They also recognised some very powerful examples of direct work with children and young people.

Councillor Paul Sweet, Cabinet Member for Children and Young People, added: “The inspectors’ findings have informed the action plan which will ensure that our services are best positioned to provide the highest quality support and care to vulnerable people in Wolverhampton.”